The Field By The Hillside - One
by gautamjit2
Summary: Mystery in a Manipuri village


_**When **_it started, no one believed it. Perhaps it did not have a beginning, but was discovered - the appearance of a bald man, with a feminine voice and eyes that never blinked. Add to that a meaningless smile, and a hopping gait. Later, hypnotism was also widely considered as one of his famous schemes. Let me describe his territory. The place was a small field, sweeping unto a hill slope. A dead-end road ran at the foot of the hill, which took a sharp turn and suddenly opened into this place. At a lower terrain were rice fields demarcated by the road. The small field had a rather unusual bearing. The grass and other vegetation had luxuriant growth throughout the year, even when paddy fields below stood dead during droughts. It had the appearance of a well-manicured lawn. Thick forest was immediate to it, prop roots from a dark, rugged serpentine banyan tree dangled at one corner. A spring of crystal clear water, which changed colour to an unfortunate being, had been there, but it dried up some time before. This was where our rare subject showed his strange accomplishments

_** ****THE RUMOUR**_

_** It**_occurred to a group of boys. That day they were roaming aimlessly, like all village boys do, after lunch. They were making a great deal of noise, and in the loosened post-prandial mood wandered as far as the small hillock. As no previous scariness had been associated with the place, they took the said road. One of them recalled an unusual feeling of fullness as they strolled in, suddenly wiped out by a burst of laughter from his friends. Next moment, everyone stood still like figurines taking in whatever impression marked onto them. Their laughter reverberated not from the hillside but from the paddy fields below. It had a disturbing note, like someone was laughing to see them. They looked at one another trying to hold their nerves and digging their conscience what on earth was that. A breeze came, and they knew something was wrong for sure. It had the empty almost dry fragrance of flowers used in crematorial rituals. It chilled them under the scorching sun. They didn't move. Some of them closed their eyes, but terror had already made an entry, and blanketing the senses only concentrated it.

_** One**_ of them suddenly cried out in great pain like being struck by a heavy weapon. A rat, disturbingly muscular with blood-stained coarse fur was tearing off flesh from his foot. Everyone was just standing there unable to believe the violent veracity and unwholesome figure of the small creature. It was disgusting. Then, one of the boys picked up a stone and hurled towards it. As, it darted away it seemed to make the same sound that had come from the paddy fields below. Next moment, one of them pointed his finger to the sky, and cried, "O mother, what's wrong with today?" A kite was flying above them, circling them as if the terrified bunch were its prey. Was it the rat? - The bloody, damn thing. No it was not, it was looking at them – inspecting every move of the party. It seemed to have an un-avian stubbornness.

_** As **_the order of the animal kingdom overturned and fear paralysed them to a state of helpless toddlers waiting for a saver, there came the soothing voice of a woman singing. It was akin to a folksong -a bewitching melody of inhuman perfection. But, the lyrics were incoherent. The words didn't tie together. It stopped suddenly, with a girlish exclamation of surprise. In a flash, they saw something quickly rolling down the hill slope and halting abruptly at the middle of the road. It was a man. His head was buckled, and blood tripped down from his lacerated nose. He bent his neck and looked around, sinisterly ignoring the group, now pale with fear. When his eyes fell on them, he made a fiendish smile of satisfaction. He kept that smile intact, and stared at each one of them one by one with unblinking eyes. One of the boys reported closing his eyes only to find him still staring at him when he eventually opened. He fainted at the spot. Feeling more satisfied, and as if sensing a need to instil more fear, he took a supernatural twist. He rose up in a swinging motion headlong like a plank. The front of his shirt was black, and in the chest- pocket was a flower, which looked freshly plucked despite the considerable stress it went through. He did not say anything, was purposely harmless. He started the same song, turned around and hopped towards the small field. It was him, who sang that out-of-the-place song. The boys were standing there bright with terror, swallowed up in the incredulity of the oddest scene possible they just had witnessed. They saw him climbing the banyan tree, without much of an effort, using a prop root, and lost in view.

_** When**_ they came to senses and were nursing the friend who had fainted, they heard another laughter. This time, it came from the hillside. They identified it instantly, it was theirs. They had been freed at last.


End file.
